THE BURR PTO PRESENTS
Understanding Our Differences – Allergic Conditions & Diabetes
- 4th & 5th Grade Student Panelists needed
- Parent Volunteers Needed
The Understanding Our Differences program is a terrific parent led program that teaches our 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade children about various disabilities. Its focus is on teaching children to be inclusive of and to be allies for persons with disabilities in their community. This program runs entirely with parent volunteers and we need your help!
The Understanding Our Differences Chronic Medical Conditions unit will take place in 4th grade classrooms on Thursday April 9th from 9:40-11:40am.
For each condition, the children will learn what happens in the body, common triggers, and how people monitor, prevent and control these medical conditions. Students learn that allergic conditions and diabetes are chronic, hidden, and not contagious, and that each person can be affected differently by these conditions. Through hands-on activities, students explore how to be a friend to those affected by allergic conditions or diabetes.
In place of an outside guest speaker, we plan a guest panel of two to four Burr 4th and 5th grade students who live with an allergic condition or diabetes. Children on the panel would sit together in the library in front of the fourth-grade class. Each will be asked to talk for two or three minutes about their medical condition: How long they have had it, what their triggers are, what medicine they take (if any), how they feel about having the medical condition, etc. These questions will be presented at the beginning, and then each student panelist will be able to talk about them for a few minutes without interruption. When they have all finished, we will open it up for questions, planning for about 20 to 30 minutes total for the panel. This format is typically a great success and enjoyed by both the panel speakers and their classmates.
If your child would like to participate in the panel, please contact Michael Grubb (mgrubb@gmail.com).
Finally, we desperately need at least 6 volunteers to run the activities. Volunteering is easy, fun and anyone can do it – you do not need any background knowledge about allergic conditions or diabetes to help. Please contact Michael Grubb (mgrubb@gmail.com) or sign-up via sign-up genius to volunteer!
Want to know more?
www.understandingourdifferences.org